HEALTH AND SAFETY; More than 50% of Bellingham's housing stock are rentals, yet no program exists to ensure the health and safety of renters. Bellingham should have an ordinance that will protect renters.
ZONING ENFORCEMENT: Additionally, by ignoring its own zoning codes, the Bellingham city government has turned neighborhoods into rooming house districts. You can demand the enforcement of zoning codes, too.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Zonemaven Takes a Brief Break

I will take a rest until January. I will monitor my site for comments to prior blogs and will post those comments as appropriate.

1 comment:

Sherri
said...

Hi Happy New year!! I'm happy to let you know the neighbor who was not a Student but one who was not a good neighbor a professional adult that caused me heart ache and harrassment sold her home and moved that was the best Christmas present I could have ever gotten. I now have very nice new neighbor who is very happy to live in the York Neighborhood. It's okay not to associate with neighbors we don't need to be friends with very one. Sandi

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About Me

Dick is a retired intelligence analyst and resource manager who spent 30 years in the military and the federal government in Asia, Europe and the US. He moved to Bellingham in 2002. Aside from this blog, Dick writes for a local news site NWCitizen. He is a Block Watch Captain and for several years was an advisor and panelist at the local high schools for the Seniors' Culminating Projects. Among other activities are his current service on the Mayor’s Neighborhood Advisory Commission, the Campus Community Coalition at WWU and his former participation on the Steering Committee of the Citizens' Forum of Bellingham. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Samish Neighborhood Association. Dick served as the Coordinator of the Retired Senior Volunteers the Bellingham Police Department for several years. For eight years he has worked part-time at WWU to provide crowd control for collegiate sporting events. For several seasons, he also operated the scoreboard for the WWU Women's Softball Team.

Followers

The Rationale for Rental Licensing

There is the definitive experience of cities that have already adopted rental licensing and inspections in the face of exactly the same opposition as we are seeing in Bellingham. Ultimately, each of these cities was proven correct in its resolve to move ahead to protect the safety and health of the renters. We already know that the city of Pasco, WA found that 15% of the units inspected under their program had serious life/safety issues. 10% had mold problems. A full 85% had problems of varying degrees. The city of Gresham, OR performed over 1600 inspections in 2009 and issued, as a result, over 4,000 citations. Lexington, KY performed inspections of units near the University of Kentucky and found that 50% had life/safety issues. Sacramento, CA began an inspection program during which one third of the units inspected had serious safety and health issues. The question why does anyone believe that the condition of rental housing here in Bellingham does not mirror that which is found in cities that have the statistics to show that time and time again the condition of rentals in our cities is problematic? All we have to date from those who oppose licensing are broad statements by the landlords and their paladins that are completely and utterly unsubstantiated. The Zonemaven has searched in vain for the horror stories that these opponents of licensing and inspections have predicted. On the other hand, The Zonemaven did find over 100 cities that have licensing AND inspections without the catastrophic effect for the rental markets that the landlords would have you believe. (See this blog's sidebar at bottom left for list)

One Reason Illegal Rooming Houses Do Not Work

The limit for unrelated persons at a single family home rental is three residents. Leases are signed by three people who then invite additional renters to join them to lower per capita rental rates. The perverse effect is that rental rates tend to rise under these circumstances making it difficult for single families to rent single family homes. Some local rental agencies facilitate this practice.

"To say that a family is so equivalent to a ragtag collection of college roommates as to require identical treatment in zoning decisions defies the reality of the place of the family in American society, despite any changes that institution has undergone in recent years. Only the most cynical among us would say that the American family has devolved to the point of no greater importance or consideration in governmental decision making than a group of college roommates." (Stegeman v. City of Ann Arbor)